FRENCH POLITICAL THOUGHT
next, that ever since Luther broke the authority of the Church
society has been looking for a new authority, for it cannot do
without one. That new authority is that of Science, and the
scientist is to modern times what the priest was to the Middle
Ages: the depositary, and to some measure the revealer, of
the sum-total of hitherto ascertained knowledge. Religion, in
fact, is nothing but the sum of knowledge of any given age,
given a sacred form so as to be offered to people to worship.
The world of to-morrow will then be organized for in-
dustrial production under the control of scientists. Since the
maximum of production requires peace and international co-
operation, the world must move to economic and political
federation, with a World-Parliament and a World-Patriotism
above existing national assemblies and allegiances. As a step
to this obviously distant ideal, Saint-Simon suggests an Anglo-
French Entente, rendered permanent by being made part of
the fundamentals of the French Constitution, Why these two
countries? Because England, backward as she is in original
ideas and scientific thought, is more advanced than any other
country in the art of self-government, and is therefore the
natural ally for any politically progressive country.
The actual organization of the new industrial society is
nowhere very clearly set out. The role of the State is reduced
to the minimum of preserving the organization of production
from attacks from without or within—" to guarantee workers
from the unproductive action of idlers, to maintain security
and freedom in production "; and this function may well be
entrusted to a dictatorial power. He plans various forms of
parliamentary organization—sometimes two, sometimes three
chambers—condemns Colonial expansion as wasteful, sketches
schemes for the reform of credit and for the expansion of the
banking industry. Generally speaking, he did not ask himself
how the mass of the people or of producers could be given
any direct relation with—much less control of—the actual
machinery of political or economic government; he never
shook off a certain belief in benevolent despotism; did he
not frankly admit his disbelief in individual liberty as a real
social driving-force and state he could not conceive of an
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